"Though she be but little, she is fierce."

The above quote from Act 3, Scene 2 of  Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream", could well apply to Belinda Fell, a rough tough little girl of seven, whom we first meet on the pages of Rumer Godden's "Miss Happiness & Miss Flower".

Nona Fell, an English child who lived in Coimbatore, is brought back to England on her mother's death to live with her cousins, the youngest of whom is  Belinda, who is not happy with Nona's coming. However because of Nona's accommodating nature, the cousins manage to live together.

In the sequel, "Little Plum", they get aloof snooty neigbours called Tiffany-Jones. However after an unpleasant accident, Miss Tiffany-Jones invites Nona to tea to meet her young niece, pointedly ignoring Belinda, who is dressed in a crooked beret, a dress with wrong buttons, a trailing muffler, wrinkled socks & muddy shoes. On Nona's asking whether Belinda can come too, Miss Tiffany-Jones rudely refuses, saying Belinda is too rough. Belinda's face goes scarlet as if she had been slapped & Nona also colours as she refuses saying she doesn't go out to tea without Belinda.

However, it is discovered at the end of the novel that the snootiness was due to Miss Tiffany-Jones, the spinster sister, who was keeping house for her brother, as his wife was in hospital. After the return of the friendly Mrs.Tiffany-Jones from the hospital, the domineering sister was driven to the railway station (in a Rolls Royce!) & the neighbours settled down cosily! 

Under-appreciated Works from Popular Creators

Paul McCartney's "Standing Stone" is a purely orchestral work with choral voices. Being a Rock musician where appeal is primarily verbal, to compose a more than 75 minutes instrumental programmatic piece is nothing short of extraordinary. But it is unfortunate that it has not been as popular as his rock albums.

S. L. Bhyrappa is the most popular & critically acclaimed Kannada novelist of the present day. But probably his Magnum Opus is "Truth & Beauty", his doctoral thesis on Aesthetics, a branch of philosophy. He himself has admitted that writing it has taken more effort than writing his acclaimed novels. Though Kuvempu & DVG had earlier written on this subject, they did not delve as deep as Sri. Bhyrappa.

Mark Twain (psuedonym of Samuel Longhorn Clemens) is a famous humorist, known as the author of "Tom Sawyer" & "Huckleberry Finn." But he himself has admitted that his best work is his biography of Saint Joan of Arc, called "Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc." He said "It furnished me seven times the pleasure afforded me by any of the others: 12 years of preparation & 2 years of writing. The others needed no preparation & got none."

Daphne du Maurier, author of the Gothic Classic "Rebecca", also wrote a short story called "No Motive." It is a superb detective story on par with the best of Christie, Marsh & Tey. But it does not seem to be filmed. However Malayalam director Pavithran has filmed an adequate adaptation called "Utharam" starring Mamooty.

Tsundoku & the Magpie Mentality

Tsundoku is a Japanese word for buying books without any intention of reading them. There are many reasons for this apparently meaningless habit, the prime one being the possessive instinct. In this aspect, it is similar to the hoarding instinct ascribed to the magpie. In fact Rossini even composed an orchestral overture called "The Thieving Magpie." Other reasons may include the wishful thinking that the unread book on the bookshelf may eventually goad one into pulling it out & start reading it!

This mentality seems to have invaded the vinyl LP buying public also. It is believed that about half of vinyl LP record buyers in USA, do not even own a turntable!

So one can take the only consolation from the above that the buyers at least economically support the book & record industry while denying themselves the cultural pleasure of reading the book or listening to the record.